Serial fraudster went on holiday to Corfu after claiming £50,000 in benefits

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A serial fraudster went on a luxury holiday to Corfu after conning more than £50,000 of benefits she was not entitled to.

Susan Wood, 63, claimed health problems meant she was unable to work but when her condition improved, she continued to claim Personal Independence Payments (PIP) she no longer qualified for.

Over a three year period, the grandmother, from Rodwell Walk, Blackpool, claimed £51,510.60 from the DWP to prop up her living expenses.

She even enjoyed a holiday in the sun she would not have been able to afford, Preston Crown Court heard.

But when her deception came to light, Wood pleaded guilty to fraud and appeared at the court to face sentence.

Judge Simon Medland QC, sentencing, said: “For a period of about three-and-a-half years you dishonestly took from the public in benefits you were not entitled to and I am quite certain you knew you were not entitled to - about £15,500 a year.

“During the course of that period, although I accept that you did not live by any means in luxury, it enabled you to enjoy a standard of living and a style of life that would otherwise have been beyond your reach.

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“These offences are the sort of thing that make honest, hard working people seethe with anger when they see themselves having to hold down several different jobs just in order to get by. They see people like you living a life way beyond your means or capabilities at the public expense because they are wrongly claiming benefits.

“It rightly makes them seethe with anger.”

The court heard Wood was convicted of benefit fraud in 1999 when she asked for 39 offences to be taken into consideration.

In 2000 she was convicted of obtaining money by deception and was handed a five month suspended sentence.

Judge Medland said: “You are 63 and you are not in good health but you are in reasonable health in many ways for your age.

He handed Wood a 12 month sentence suspended for two years with 25 days rehabilitation activity requirement and a two month curfew.

He said arrangements were already in place to reclaim the money Wood had claimed.